Unexpected
by Pink Mockingjay in Hufflepuff
Summary: Astrid receives some unexpected news that scares her more than it should. "We'll figure it out, I promise. We always do." Hiccup scooted just a little closer to her so their foreheads were touching. "It's not like you're going to have to do this by yourself."
1. Chapter 1

_**Irena from my other story Fractured Family does not exist in this universe.**_

* * *

Astrid was never, _ever_ terrified. Never. Things never really scared her to that point. She had been startled, worried, and frightened before. But never terrified.

Except for today.

She wasn't sure why she was terrified, she just _was_.

Her stomach wasn't helping either. It was a bundle of nerves on top of nausea she hadn't been able to shake for two weeks straight.

Hiccup had been worried she might've caught something until she honestly told him that she hadn't actually shown any other symptoms of an illness when he asked. He brought it down to the recent stress of a new, and quite inexperienced, class at the Academy and so had she.

When she finally couldn't take it anymore and she needed to know what was wrong, she broke down and went to the healer, ignoring her pride for the time being.

When she told the healer that she and Hiccup both thought it was stress related, the healer murmured something that Astrid couldn't make out.

"What?" Astrid had asked for clarification.

The healer, still going about her business, had told her without looking at her "Don't stress. It's bad for the baby."

_Baby_.

It felt like there were needles pricking her everywhere and her stomach turned to ice before lighting on fire. Her hands were numb and almost buzzing. She felt faint and then she didn't. The back of her neck felt warm and then the heat spread through her body slowly. And then she ran.

She had no idea where she wanted to go, but she ran there anyway. She ended up in the woods, not too far in, but far enough, and she sat with her back against a tree and pulled her knees to her chest and did something she rarely did. She cried.

When Stormfly sensed something was wrong, she had left her spot where she was napping with Toothless and followed her rider's scent into the trees.

When Stormfly found Astrid shaking with quiet sobs, she nuzzled her gently. Astrid hardly noticed. Stormfly considering going and making a racket outside of Hiccup's meeting until he came out and followed her, but she didn't want to leave her best friend alone, so she curled up next to Astrid and waited for quite a while.

Astrid decided not to go to dinner. She felt terrible and she probably looked it too. She wasn't hungry either. She knew Hiccup would be worried, but if he noticed Stormfly's absence, she was rather certain he wouldn't come looking for her.

She and Stormfly took the long way home so no one would see them and then Astrid washed her face before curling up on her side on the bed.

Fearless Astrid Hofferson (well, Haddock now technically) was feeling as pathetic as she most likely looked.

Why was she so scared? She didn't understand it. Was it because she wasn't used to the idea of a baby? She knew wouldn't be a good mother.

And she wasn't _ready_. _They_ weren't ready.

They were still so young yet, so much they wanted to do. So many places they wanted to explore. How could they do that with a child to take care of?

Hiccup was always so busy and she was always needed at the Academy. They couldn't do their jobs on top of raising a baby.

Could they?

If they somehow, miraculously, found the time, Hiccup would be an amazing father. She didn't have a doubt in the world. She would be mediocre, at best.

No child would want her as a mother.

The front door squeaked open. Astrid heard dragon claws on the floor downstairs as well as a metallic clicking. Hiccup and Toothless were home.

"Astrid?" Hiccup called. "Are you here?"

Astrid couldn't find it in herself to answer him at the moment. She just wanted to disappear.

"You missed dinner and Stormfly is freaking out." Hiccup informed as he climbed the stairs. Toothless was following according to the creaks.

He stopped in front of the open bedroom door. "Astrid? Are you okay?" Hiccup's concern was genuine and obvious.

She couldn't answer him and she started to cry again. Toothless was unnerved and whimper loudly from the doorway. Astrid didn't cry.

"What's wrong?" he asked her kindly, sitting on his side of the bed. Her back was facing him, so he rubbed little circles on it in hopes that it would calm her down some.

She stopped crying in a minute or two and took a few shuddery breaths to get herself together.

"I'm scared." she whispered. Her head was throbbing from all the crying she had done. Her eyes were itchy as well.

"Scared of what?" Hiccup prompted, concerned.

Astrid didn't look at him. He hadn't known about her healer visit. "I'm pregnant."

He didn't say a word and he stopped rubbing her back.

The same feeling from earlier came back. She was hot and cold and itchy and numb. He was upset. She didn't like it when Hiccup was upset. And, as childish as it sounded, she really didn't like it when he was upset with her.

"You're serious?" Hiccup asked after a minute or two of silence, sounding a little dazed.

"Yes," she hadn't moved since he came home.

Suddenly, she felt a kiss on her cheek before another on her neck.

"Would you like to tell me why you're so scared?" Hiccup asked softly from his place hovering over her.

She rolled over then and he lay next to her. He looked more concerned than anything else. Just looking at him made her want to tell him everything. It made her feel ashamed of herself for feeling the way she did when he looked so calm. He was _always_ so calm, so ready for anything that got thrown at him. No wonder he was such a great chief. Tears filled her eyes again.

"Please don't cry," Hiccup said quietly, wiping a tear away with his finger. "I hate it when you cry. It's going be alright."

She sniffled and he took her hand and intertwined their fingers.

"Will you tell me?" he asked again. He was quiet gentle and everything she loved about him, so she answered.

"I don't know. I don't know why I'm so afraid. People have babies all the time."

"Maybe, but _you_ haven't had a baby before. A lot changes when you have a baby, starting right now. You're not used to that. I'm sure your not the only one who's ever been upset about this."

"Between the Academy and all your running around, we hardly see each other." Astrid continued. "How are we going to take care of a baby?"

"We'll figure it out, I promise. We always do." Hiccup scooted just a little closer to her so their foreheads were touching. "It's not like you're going to have to do this by yourself. I'll be here for whatever you need me for, I promise. You're going to be a great mother, Astrid. And I have no idea how great of a dad I'll be, but I'll try my best."

"You're-you're not mad?" she sounded a lot more timid than she ever had. She looked so very unlike herself at the moment, she wouldn't even look at him.

"No, of course not." Hiccup promised. He kissed her. "We'll be just fine. Everything will work out. I know it will."

She smiled a little before snuggling against him. How did she get so lucky?

She hadn't realized how tired she was until Hiccup pulled her closer to him and kissed the top of her head.

Neither of them had realized they had fallen asleep until they woke up very early the next morning.

* * *

_**A/N: I shouldn't start another story when I'm still working on one, but this idea was gnawing at me for weeks at this point and I finally got it down on paper so I decided to go with it.**_

_**I know Astrid seems a little OOC, but that's because she's really scared, even if she doesn't truly know why. Fear does strange things to people it makes the brave weak and the weak braver in some cases. I really wanted to play with that here, and I think I've done it pretty well. I know an unexpected child can cause people to panic and worry far beyond their usual boundaries for that kind of thing because it throws them for a loop.**_

_**And we know Hiccup is a gentle, loving person with the best of intentions (even if his ideas do sometimes go awry), so I'd imagine Hiccup would act exactly this way.**_

_**The next chapter will be from Hiccup's side and we'll get to see his feelings about this.**_

_**Please review! **_


	2. Chapter 2

Toothless was curled up near the fire and Hiccup was sitting at his desk in the forge, rolling his pencil absentmindedly while he was lost in thought.

He had nothing to do today and he was going to try and rework the mechanism on Toothless' saddle to see if there was a better way for it to work. He hadn't gotten around to it. He had too much to think about.

Astrid was at the Academy as usual and she and his mother were doing a trivia type game with the children. There was nothing to win except bragging rights, but every class took it very seriously.

She had bounced back from her worries in a day, like he expected she would. He was pretty okay until two nights ago, now he was the one freaking out.

He was going to be a father for Thor's sake. That was scary. He was scared. No. He was terrified.

There was going to be a baby in his house soon. A crying, wriggling thing that he didn't know what to do with. He had never even _held_ a baby, let alone took care of one. And now he was going to have to do it twenty four seven.

He was scatterbrained. He got too excited, too loud for having a baby in the house.

Everything Astrid said at the beginning was right. They _were_ too young to be parents. Too busy.

Astrid had never mentioned having children before she told him she was pregnant. He never saw her as the kind of person to want any kids. She didn't seem like the type to settle down. It actuallly surprised him some when she agreed to marry him.

She was getting more and more into the idea the further along into the pregnancy she got, though. He seemed to be going in the opposite direction.

Toothless and Stormfly had become rather protective of Astrid when they figured out what was going on. He had too, he supposed, because recently she snapped at him.

"I'm pregnant, not broken! If I need you, I'll ask!"

Her outbursts hadn't been anymore frequent or violent than usual. What was unusual was that she was much more apt to cry. He was assured by his mother that it was normal, but it was still unnerving.

He didn't know what to do when Astrid started crying, let alone a baby. Babies were so tiny and helpless and they always cried. What was he going to do?

Astrid knew what she was doing, but he didn't. He doubted he ever would.

He'd just be a bumbling fool.

"When _aren't_ you a bumbling fool?"

Hiccup jumped back, nearly falling out of his chair, startled at the voice. He looked towards the direction of the voice to see Astrid leaning against the doorframe, her arms crossed loosely and a slight smirk playing on her face.

He rubbed his neck awkwardly. "Was-was I thinking out loud again?"

"Yup."

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to think you were unconscious before you said something." she stood up straight. "I'm glad you're not unconscious. I would've had to dump that bucket of water over your head."

"Well, in that case, I'm very glad I'm very conscious." Hiccup saw his pencil halfway across the room. He must have rolled it too much and was too deep in his thoughts to have cared. Had he really been sitting there, just staring at his sketch of Toothless' saddle?

"What's on your mind?" she asked, sitting on the edge of his desk. She stared doing that not long after they officially became a couple when they were younger to distract him and bother him and make him loose track of what he was supposed to be doing at the time. He would've loved to say it never worked, but that would've been a lie.

"Nothing's on my mind." he said much too quickly. He tried to look relaxed, but it didn't work.

"Mhmhm, and I'm a yak." she put her hand on his. "Seriously, what are you thinking about?"

"You, I mean, us, I guess, well... me?"

Astrid rolled her eyes, she couldn't help it, but she squeezed his hand lightly, urging him to continue.

He sighed. Trying to keep something from his wife was like trying to feed Toothless an eel. It wasn't ever going to happen. "Astrid, I'm not going to be a good father." he looked down at the floor.

"Of course you are." she said, a softness in her voice that he wasn't sure he had ever heard her use before. "Everyone loves you. I'm sure this little one will too." she motioned to her rather large stomach. One more month and they'd be parents.

"I'm not going to know what to do! And you-"

She chuckled. "Do you think I know what I'm supposed to do?"

He was taken aback. "Don't you?"

"That's cute, Hiccup, but no."

"But girls-" he began, looking more nervous than he had earlier.

Astrid interrupted him. "Yeah, yeah, our mothers teach us stuff. But they can only generalize stuff. All babies are different and they don't come with a personalized book of instructions. Look, I've never had a kid and you've never had a kid. We're at the same place. It'd be great if I magically knew what I was supposed to do, but I don't, so we're going to do this together because that's the only way we're going to figure it out. Sound like a plan?"

He smiled. That made him feel a lot better than he had in weeks. "Yeah, it does."

"Good," she replied, smiling back. "And, hey, we've got our mothers as a last resort."

"Between the both of them and their babysitting offers, I think we could up and leave for two years and they'd barely notice."

She laughed. "The other day, I swear I thought my mother was going to ask me to move back home. I mean, we live less than five minutes from her. I think she's a little jealous that your mom lives with us."

He laughed too. "They are very determined to have this baby all to themselves aren't they?"

"I think so." she smiled. "Too bad the baby will have parents, huh?"

"Yeah, too bad for the grandmothers." he stood up then, leaning down a little to kiss her. "Shall we try to go to the cove for a little while before someone suddenly decides they need me?"

"We can try, but you leaving, or trying to leave, is like a big red banner over the whole village that says 'Tell me all your problems! Even the ones that don't matter! And tell me right at this exact moment!'"

"So you've noticed too." he smiled. "I think we can add 'Ask me all about my personal life and I'll be happy to answer.' to that banner."

"People ask you about your personal life?"

"They try to. It's personal for a reason people."

She laughed. "What kind of things do they ask you?"

"Anything you can think of. From the very innocent to things I wouldn't even know how to answer."

"Oh no," she giggled a little.

"Are we going then?"

"Sure," she stood up and took his hand.

"You coming, bud?" Hiccup asked the Night Fury. Toothless warbled and stretched before nodding in agreement.

"We'll be at the cove if someone needs me, Gobber." Hiccup said louder than usual so his voice would carry to any part of the forge.

Gobber poked his head out. "Alright lad. Have fun. But not too much fun. She's already pregnant."

They both went a little red in the face and Gobber laughed.

"That's what I mean by personal stuff. It's worse than that though, usually." Hiccup told Astrid as they started to walk towards the cove.

"People are so weird." she said, reaching her free hand up to scratch at her Nadder's neck. Stormfly had decided to join them.

"They are, but so are you and you're married, soo..." he teased.

She bent his arm back in one swift movement, making him cry out in pain.

"You're just lucky I'm pregnant." she said, letting his arm go back to its regular position.

Yes he was, because soon they'd have a baby. And that was exciting. And it would all work out because they'd be doing it together.

* * *

_**A/N: Hello readers! I hope you liked this chapter! They'll be one more soon. I really like Hiccup as a character as I'm kind of reminded of myself in him (a slightly awkward green-eyed ginger who gets excited easily and sometimes won't take no for an answer), so I find it easier for me to write about him more. Hiccup is my favorite fictional boy at the moment. It was kind of fun to flip the story around and have Astrid calm Hiccup's fears, when last chapter it was the other way around. Personally, I think Hiccup and Astrid would be a great parenting team (HTTYD3, are you taking note?).**_

_**I'm still working on Fractured Family, I promise. It's slow going, but I'll finish it.**_

_**The URL for my HTTYD blog on tumblr is** how2trainyourfangirl** . I reblog (and sometimes post) all kinds of things related to HTTYD (including Hiccstrid, of course)! I'd love for you to check it out!**_

_**Please review if you can! They really get me going and I really appreciate them! **_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Sorry this took so long! Thanks for being patient!**_

* * *

Hiccup walked down the stairs slowly, trying to wake himself up. His dragon was moody this morning because he was tired as well and was bumbling behind him.

He reached the last stair and ran his hand through his hair in a last-ditch effort to make it look halfway decent.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Astrid teased good-naturedly from her spot on the floor.

"Good morning, Milady." Hiccup replied, smiling as he approached her.

"Dada," the tiny girl in Astrid's lap said, holding her arms up in his direction. Astrid smiled. She was such a daddy's girl.

"Good morning to you too, birthday girl." Hiccup sat next to Astrid on the floor and pulled his baby daughter into his lap before dropping a kiss on the top of her head. "How early did you wake your mommy up this morning?"

The baby's response was sticking her thumb in her mouth and giving her father a blank stare.

"About seven thirty." Astrid answered, leaning back and using her arms to support her. She didn't look more tired than usual.

"That early?" Hiccup asked. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Because you were dead to the world and you over-did it yesterday. I figured I'd let you sleep. Anyway, I don't mind waking up with her. She's a good girl." Astrid smiled at the baby and tickled her tummy, making her squeal with laughter. "Right, Kari?"

Hiccup smiled. Kari could probably wake up half the village screaming her head off and hardly anyone would care. The residents just simply adored the little girl.

Toothless sniffed the little girl carefully.

"Tooluss," Kari lisped, reaching out two little hands to clumsily pat the Night Fury's snout.

Toothless crooned softly. He liked the little human very much and she was bringing him out of his grouchiness.

Kari was a happy, healthy, and curious one year old. She was born a few weeks early, so she was on the small side, but she was growing quickly. Her hair was a whispy reddish-blonde and her eyes were the exact shade of green as her father's. She had, peculiarly enough, been born with her eyes green instead of the typical deep blue.

"Can you say 'dragon', Kari?" Hiccup asked in that gentle voice that made babies listen. "Dragon."

"Dag'n." Kari repeated to the best of her ability.

"That's right. Dragon." Hiccup smiled and tickled Kari A little, making her squeal with laughter.

He was so good with her. He loved showing and teaching her everything he could. They were almost inseparable when he was home. He'd sit her on his lap when he was doing something and try to explain to her anything he could. He was constantly showing her letters and teaching her new words ('pencil', 'map' and 'desk' to name a few), and trying to teach her how to count.

Despite all this, however, Kari's first word was 'Mama' when she was seven months old.

Astrid, surprisingly enough, was a cuddler when it came to Kari. She bounced her on her leg so much, she did it absentmindedly by this point. Astrid flipped Kari upside-down when she was in a grumpy mold to make her smile. She was the parent who put her near the edge of a puddle to teach her what a puddle was (yes, the baby splashed herself and cried, but she knew puddles were wet now). She was the kind to put a rock or a leaf or a twig in her daughter's hand to show her what it was. She got a handful of snow from outside before and put it in Kari's hands (which is how she learned the words 'snow' and 'cold').

Astrid was the outside, adventure-type teacher, while Hiccup was the explainer. Somehow, this balanced nicely. Hiccup and Astrid each encouraged (and helped with) the other's style of showing their daughter the world.

They hadn't a clue what they were doing, but somehow they were doing it right. Sure, they had a few disagreements about things, but they resolved them quickly. Their baby was learning. Their baby was smart. Their baby was happy.

And her laugh was the most precious thing in the world.

Once Kari learned to smile, she hardly stopped. Astrid's mother, Ramona, said that Kari was the happiest baby she had ever seen. Valka thought Kari was the most darling little thing.

"Do you know how old you are, Kari?" Astrid asked. "One. Can you say that? One."

"Wun."

"Such a smart birthday girl." Astrid smiled, kissing Kari's head.

Kari clumsily clapped her hands together, giggling.

"Why do you have to be so cute?" Astrid laughed, taking Kari back into her lap and tickling her everywhere. Kari's giggles filled the house.

When Kari was nearly out of breath, Astrid stopped tickling her and stood her up in front of her, holding her hands to keep her from falling on her bottom. "Are you going to stand alone today?"

Kari smiled a little.

"That can be a present to Mommy and Daddy on your birthday. Want to try?"

Kari didn't do anything.

Astrid looked at Hiccup. "What do you think, Daddy? Should we give it a shot?"

"I think we should." Hiccup replied.

Astrid slowly started letting go of Kari's hands. She cried out. She hated to fall and she knew what was coming.

"It's okay, little one." Hiccup shifted around so he could catch her before she hit the floor if she fell. "I'll catch you, I promise."

"Ready?" Astrid let go of Kari's hands completely. Kari stayed upright for a good three seconds before she lost her balance.

Hiccup caught her, as promised, and put her so she could crawl. "Getting closer, baby girl."

Kari crawled to her dragon toy at the edge of the blanket they were sitting on and started biting on the ears. She was teething and she drooled all the time. Toothless lay down to watch her play. He was a pretty good babysitter.

Hiccup pulled Astrid close to him and wrapped his arms around her.

"One crazy year, huh?"

"Almost two crazy years counting everything before that." was her reply.

He smiled and kissed her cheek. "I think we're doing pretty well, what do you think?"

"I think so too." she replied, cuddling against him.

"So... what happens now? Do we try for a boy or twins or what?"

She elbowed him roughly in the ribs.

"Ow. _What_ was that for?" he almost whined.

"Suggesting that we could have twins."

He chuckled. "Hey, it's a very real possibility."

"If I ever have twins, you're loosing a bit of your manhood, buddy."

That shut him up.

"But, you know, in all seriousness, both of us were the only children in our families. Maybe it'd be nice to have more than one kid in the house."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

She smiled a little in Kari's direction. She was still happily gnawing her toy. "When I was little, I always wanted a sister."

"I wanted a sister too, actually."

"Not a brother?"

Hiccup scoffed. "I was convinced that if I had a brother, he'd treat me like Snotlout used to."

"Aww,"

"Don't 'aww' me."

"I'll 'aww' you if I want to. You're adorable."

"I-I'm not adorable!" he protested. "I'm _extremely_ manly!"

Toothless snorted.

"Keep telling yourself that, babe."

"I love you guys too." Hiccup rolled his eyes and poked Astrid in the side, right in her ticklish spot, making her swat his hand away.

"Don't." she warned.

"I won't if there's a very real possibility about getting Kari a sibling in the relatively near future." he smiled mischievously.

"I'd say that there is."

He stammered a bit before asking "And if it does happen to be twins?"

"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it."

"Deal." he replied, kissing her on the lips.

"Ick."

Hiccup and Astrid both looked towards the twelve month old. She had a look of disgust on her face.

"We're icky, are we?" Hiccup asked, plucking her from the floor and flipping her, making her squeal with delight. Astrid had to laugh along with the two most important people in her life.

If they could handle an unexpected baby, they could handle anything, and if that meant a set of twins, bring it.

Hiccup stood Kari on the ground again and let go, hoping she'd stay up longer. He was wrong and she fell to the ground with a thump. She started wailing.

On second thought, perhaps _not_ a set of twins.

* * *

_**A/N: Hiya everyone! Nice to see you again! I hope you enjoyed meeting Kari! She's a little cutie-pie! I think we all know Hiccup is a softy, but I think a baby would turn Astrid into a teddy bear too. Hiccup's such a dork. I love him so much.**_

_**It's thanks to my ten month old cousin that I finally finished this! I saw him yesterday and he's so stinking adorable! His giggle is officially my new favorite thing.**_

_**As I have like four cousins under the age of three at the moment (and a niece coming around Christmas), I was thinking of making a one-shot series with Hiccup, Astrid, and Kari due to all my inspiration. Would anyone be interested?**_

_**Thanks for reading and please review if you can! They mean so much!**_


End file.
